4. Pressured by the Soviet Union’s success in the space race, the US aimed to
launch its first satellite Vanguard 1A aboard the Vanguard TV-3 on 6th
December 1957.
At its launch attempt, the booster ignited and began to rise, but about two
seconds after liftoff, the rocket lost thrust and fell back to the launch pad. As it
settled, the fuel tanks ruptured and exploded. The world’s greatest nation
having its first satellite launch hyped for a week and then ending in a
spectacular, televised explosion was too good for the media to leave alone.
The London Daily Express went with the headline “US Calls it X”, a rather
fitting pun consisting of the word meaning broken/ useless ( also can mean the
sound of an explosion).
ID X
Q1
7. This long standing debate on this terminology began in the 19th century. The
earliest known proposal for the revival of this term A was published in The
Republican of Springfield, Massachusetts on November 10, 1901, which contained
the following statement:
"Now, clearly, what is needed is a more comprehensive term which does homage to
the sex without expressing any views as to their domestic situation, and what
could be simpler or more logical than the retention of what the two doubtful terms
have in common."
ComputerWorld made the following button as a tongue-in-cheek joke relating this
to a popular old computer software (button on next slide).
ID the computer software blanked out.
Q2
11. Q3
A postdoc (now an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at
MIT) at Tufts University’s Omenetto Lab has stumbled upon a novel use for silk,
when he was participating in a lab-wide cooking competition whose one
requirement was to incorporate silk into every dish. He then partnered with a few
Boston-based scientists to form Cambridge Crops, which aims to iterate and
expand on the initial discovery, using silk as a core ingredient in the development
of its products.
The company also aims to reduce greenhouse gases during transportation and
thinks that “... our technology is the one that can actually enable [the elimination
of plastic ____ _________]”. It looks to solve the one main problem plaguing this
particular industry, causing tremendous loss to both sellers, as well as to the
environment.
What was the use that was discovered?
14. Q4
___ ____ by Paul Anderson is a 1971 sci-fi novel based on the short
story “To outlive eternity”. It follows the crew of the starship
Leonora Christine, a colonization vessel crewed by 25 men and 25
women aiming to reach the nearby star Beta Virginis. Halfway
through the journey, the ship passes through a small nebula,
damaging the decelerator field generators due to which the crew
decides to increase acceleration to reach a nearby star. The title
references how a certain parameter reaches a certain numerical
value due to which the crew loses hope of ever reconnecting with
humanity again.
FITB.
18. Q5
Foster’s rule (also called the island rule) is an ecogeographical rule
of a particular branch of biology. First stated by mammalogist J.
Bristol Foster in 1964, he compared 116 island species with their
mainland varieties, and found that the island species differed by a
certain characteristic, which was extremely pronounced and
contrary to the mainland variety. The explanation proposed was
simple: the increase in this characteristic depended on the lack of
predation pressure, and the decrease was attributed to the
reduction in land area. Recently, this rule has also been verified for
plants, but in a different manner.
Give the rule.
20. Members of a species get smaller or larger on the basis of the
resources of the environment
ANSWER
21. Q6 A report by Barclay’s states that a certain development happening in excess within
a region could be indicative of an impending financial crisis, a recurring theme
within the last 140 years.
A director at Barclay’s explains that the development of __________ has been
characterized by bursts of sporadic, but intense activity that coincide with easy
credit, rising land prices and excessive optimism, but often by the time the
____________are finished, the economy has slipped into recession.
The Great Depression hit after New York undertook and finished this massive
development in 1929. Economic and oil crises in the 1970s followed the
development of a pair of now formerly existing, infamous structures in New York.
More recently, the Great Recession of the late 2000s coincided with Dubai
applying finishing touches to the same type of development.
What kind of development?
24. Q7 Adding additional capacity in a network when the moving entities within the
network act selfishly could lead to an overall, paradoxical reduction in performance
of the network as a whole. This is because the Nash equilibrium of such a system is
not necessarily optimal, and this network change induces a new game structure
which would lead to a new multiplayer Prisoner’s Dilemma. Conversely, the
elimination of said capacity from the original network tends to have the opposite
effect: that of further optimization of the network.
This is a related to the concept of Tragedy of the Commons, where everyone is worse
off because they act selfishly instead of in the cooperative manner. This effect is also
seen in other contexts like sporting teams with one or two star players or removing a
doomed species from a food web, leading to the salvation of the rest of the food web.
What would I be talking about, if I were referencing another (the origin of this
paradox) context, applicable to cities like Seoul, Bangalore and New York?
26. Addition of another road/route leads to more traffic due to people
selfishly choosing the shortcut and thus increasing overall travel
time (and vice versa)
ANSWER
27. Q8 "The X of songs" is a journal article, published by famous computer scientist
Donald Knuth, which attempted to demonstrate the devolvement of
popular music from the older ballads to current music (current being in
1977, when the article was published). He went on to state that the concept
of a refrain was invented just to optimize on a certain X of songs.
Prof. Kurt Eisemann of San Diego State University also showed how an
ancient culture achieved the absolute minimum bound on this topic in one
of his letters to the Communications of the ACM, where he mentions that
the Native Americans welcomed the strangers from the Mayflower with
complete silence.
Put funda as to what this article was about.
29. The article is “The Complexity of Songs”, where Knuth tries to show how
songs now require lesser and lesser memory constraints to be
remembered, thus decreasing the space complexity required to
remember them.
ANSWER
32. Breathe
Time
The Great Gig in The Sky
Money
DARK
SIDE
OF
THE
MOON
Us and Them
Any Colour You Like
Brain Damage
Eclipse
33. The number of people accused of public indecency goes up during
heavy winters, due to a curious phenomenon called “Paradoxical
__________”. To prevent the loss of heat from the extremities of the
body, the body takes corrective measures. But these corrective
measures backfire, and result in a (absolutely insane and fatal) need
for the person to behave inappropriately to derive some relief,
leading to the bizarre appearance of the bodies.
FITB/Put funda for the phenomenon.
Breathe
I've always been mad, I know I've been mad
35. Blank - Undressing
Blood vessels contract to preserve heat, but muscles
holding them fatigue and relax, releasing a hot flash.
This leads the person to undress and smile as they get
relief from the cold (from which they are dying)
ANSWER
BACK
36. If you observe closely enough on a clear sky day and at the right time just before
sunset or just after sunrise, a very rare phenomenon occurs for a brief period of 1
or 2 seconds. It happens when the sun is almost entirely below the horizon, with
the barest edge of the sun visible. This is caused by the combination of two
optical phenomena, mirage and the “middling” dispersion of light through the
horizon which acts like a prism, producing a rare yet elusive phenomenon, which
leads to an old sailor’s myth about resurrection after death.
What phenomenon?
Time
And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun but
it's sinking
38. Green flash in the sky as the sun is setting
ANSWER
BACK
39. A certain type of dinosaurs characterised by having coverings of bony
armour called Ankylosaurus are always found upside down when
they die partially submerged in water. One theory suggests that this
strange underwater trend is a result of carnivores scavenging for their
posthumous remains, but this was proven to be untrue as otherwise
easily spottable bite marks on bones are never found.
There is a simpler explanation for why this trend occurs, put funda.
The
Great
Gig
in
The
Sky
I never said I was frightened of dying
41. Due to bloating of the body in the water, the centre of
mass and centre of buoyancy separate and the body
overturns in water
ANSWER
BACK
42. The Conchagua volcano in a certain South American country was
selected as the site for the planned "_______ City", a tax haven and smart
city project that will use the energy from the volcano to power its
infrastructure, along with the country’s main claim to fame. The project,
announced by President Nayib Bukele, will be funded by a $1 billion
_______ bond, nicknamed the “Volcano bond”, issued by state-owned
power company LaGeo.
FITB
Money
I'm alright, Jack, keep your hands off of my stack
46. “Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy Explain’d for the Use of the ______” is
a novel by Frances Algarotti which attempts to explain Newton’s
principles with flirtatious dialogue and romantic euphemisms.
For example, a certain law is explained as-
‘I cannot help thinking … that this proportion in the squares of the
distances of places … is observed even in love. Thus after eight days’
absence love becomes sixty-four times less than it was the first day.”
FITB and which law?
Us
and
Them
And after all we're only ordinary men
49. Commonly seen across rural America, this presence was not originally this
visually striking when the poor New England settlers first came to the
country. They needed a cheap way to ensure the preservation of this object,
so they proceeded to mix skimmed milk and lime (for longevity and
toughness) and iron oxide (to prevent the growth of moss and mold). The
signature quality provided by one of these elements provided this presence
with a feeling of strength, nobility and stability, leading it to become a
standard look.
What am I talking about?
Any
Colour
You
Like
…
52. The case of Rene Blondlot and the N-rays is used as a cautionary tale among scientists on
the dangers of error introduced by experimenter bias. He had perceived changes in the
brightness of an electric spark in a spark gap placed in an X-ray beam passing through a
prism which he photographed, and he later attributed to the novel form of radiation,
naming this the N-rays for the University of Nancy.
The "discovery" excited international interest and many physicists worked to replicate the
effects, but failed. Following his own failure, the American physicist Robert W. Wood, who
had a reputation as a popular "debunker" of nonsense during the period set out to do just
that.
What sneaky change in the setup did Robert Wood make to disprove the existence of the N-
rays?
Brain
Damage
And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes/I'll see you on the
dark side of the moon
54. He stole the source of the rays and the prism through
which it passes
ANSWER
BACK
55. Rhubarb is synonymous with all things British today and Yorkshire provides
the best conditions for the growth of this plant with a sour, edible stalk and
toxic leaves. In Yorkshire, there exists a 9 square mile triangle called the
Yorkshire Rhubarb Triangle, which produces nearly all the rhubarb for
Britain. The speciality about the rhubarb grown here is that it is cultivated
only under candlelight and thus earns the name of “forced rhubarb”.
Furthermore, it is subjected to frost, usually a death sentence for plants, but
in this case, makes the experience of eating the rhubarb stalk much better.
Put funda.
Eclipse
But the sun is eclipsed by the moon
57. Subjecting the plant to frost and lack of light leads the
leaves to wilt and the sugar to be stored in the stem,
making it sweeter and edible.
ANSWER
BACK
60. Q1 A recent ruling by a trio of Californian judges has been causing quite the buzz
since ____ can now be classified as a type of fish.
A certain type of invertebrates, which the ____ falls under, are not explicitly
protected under the California Endangered Species Act. The act however protects
native species or subspecies of a bird, mammal, fish, amphibian, reptile, or plant.
The law defines "fish" as "a wild fish, mollusk, crustacean, invertebrate,
amphibian, or part, spawn, or ovum of any of those animals."
Given that many of the above creatures aren't even fish, California has been
arguing ever since about whether "invertebrates" here should apply to _____.
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time this type of invertebrates has been protected
under the fish category. In 1980, the Trinity bristle snail was classified as a fish.
63. Q2
This unusual behavior of butterflies and other insects hovering
over X waiting to drink their _____ of these relatively larger hosts
provides nutrients to them such as salts, sodium amino acids and
other macronutrients like proteins which are hard for them to
find in nature generally. This is done by butterflies as salt helps
them to produce eggs and for their metabolism, hence they look
out for sources like X's ______, which seem real and genuine
enough to these creatures. Researchers call this phenomenon as
lachryphagy, where the insects feed on mammals ______.
ID X, a dangerous mammal, and FITB.
66. Q3 Hertz, a rental car company that was owned by Ford, polled its best customers and found
that speed of service was their key concern. Their officials thus wanted an ad campaign
that showed Hertz being able to get its customers to the plane or out of the airport
quickly.
X was popular for his athletic prowess and to Hertz, he became the definition of speed,
and used him in their ads.
Hertz later gifted X a car made by Ford because of his association with the company.
Seeing this, X's best friend also bought the car, which later became involved in an
infamous event that was followed by a criminal trial in 1994, post which Ford
discontinued the line. This event caused the car to be one of the top most viewed vehicles
of during the time with 200 million people watching the infamous event. Ironically, this
event did not display the speed that was shown in the ads with X, and instead is infamous
for being a 2 hour low speed drive on California highways.
ID X and the event.
69. Q4 Old palaces and buildings are often imagined to be huge monolithic
structures, but in reality they were a series of relatively narrow buildings built
around courtyards, and one of the fundamental reasons for doing so was to
allow sufficient light to enter the rooms.
During the period between 1760 to mid 1800s, certain buildings were changed
to be single storeyed ones due to mechanical reasons. But employing the
earlier solution was not possible which would’ve led to a lot of space wasted,
leading to loss in revenue. The solution builders eventually came up with an
idea to put the windows on the roof of these buildings in a particular shape.
What buildings am I talking about here, if this led to the current
representation (emojis, technical symbols) of the kind of buildings referred
to?
72. Q5
1209 North Orange Street, Wilmington, DE is the home to the
businesses of over 65% of the fortune 500 companies,
including the likes of Cocacola, Walmart, Google, Apple and
Ebay. It in fact has more of these businesses than people.
Copyrights and trademarks and what not, are registered here.
This is because of a certain Delaware loophole. Due to the
nature of these businesses, over 15% of these companies are
also able to use a single building to house them as shown in the
image.
What is this loophole?
74. No taxes on intangible assets such as trademarks,
copyrights, etc
ANSWER
75. Q6 Rapamycin is a drug that helps reduce the likelihood of donor organ
rejection in transplant patients thanks to the molecule rapamune
synthesized with the help of the Streptomyces hygroscopicus bacteria
found in certain soil samples.
Dr Suren Sehgal discovered the bacteria in the soil sample while on
vacation to a popular "holiday destination" when he noticed that the
inhabitants of the island were less likely to catch tetanus infections.
The molecule and the drug as a result were named in a way to pay
tribute to the holiday destination where the samples were first
obtained.
ID the destination
78. Q7 My Name is Earl (2005-2009) introduced at least 3 jokes in 3 different episodes
that would only be seen by a certain subset of viewers and missed by others, due
to certain aspects of the viewers. Put funda or what were the two sets of users.
80. People who had access to HD screens vs people who had
access to SD (Aspect ratio - 16:9 vs 4:3)
ANSWER
81. Q8 This is Tupper’s X formula.
Between the range k (some 563) digit number and k+17, it attains
some special feature, what feature?
Background : Jeff Tupper is a Computer scientist who worked on
bitmap image representation in the University of Toronto when he
came up with this equation.
